Month: April 2023

Minnesota, Alabama State Representatives Expected to Vote on New Gun Control Laws

State legislatures from the North and the South are considering gun control legislation this week. The Minnesota House of Representatives is expected to pass HF 2890, an Omnibus Bill that includes universal background checks and Minnesota’s version of the extreme risk protection order, or red flag law. On the other side of the country, the…


Florida’s Killer Clown Case Finally Ends With Plea Deal

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla.—A clown came to Marlene Warren’s door on a May morning in 1990, handed her carnations and balloons and then shot her dead in front of her son. On Tuesday, her husband’s second wife finally pleaded guilty to being the killer, closing a case that is strange even by Florida standards. Sheila Keen-Warren,…


Seagate to Pay $300 Million Penalty for Shipping Huawei 7 Million Hard Drives

Seagate Technology Holdings PLC has agreed to pay a $300 million penalty in a settlement with U.S. authorities for shipping over $1.1 billion worth of hard disk drives to China’s Huawei in violation of U.S. export control laws, the Department of Commerce said. Seagate sold the drives to Huawei between August 2020 and September 2021…


Japan’s ispace Moon Landing Bid Fails, Lander Likely Crashed

Japanese lunar exploration company ispace said Wednesday that it had lost communication with its unmanned spacecraft, Hakuto-R, which it sent to the moon, and the mission was presumed to have failed. “Now we lost the communication. So we have to assume that … we could not complete the landing on the lunar surface,” ispace CEO…


Defacing of Historical Statue During Australia’s Remembrance Day ‘Very Disappointing,’ Says Mayor

A statue of a historical figure in Sydney’s northwest was defaced while Australians gathered to commemorate ANZAC Day The words, “Here stands a mass murderer who ordered genocide,” was spray painted onto the statue of Lachlan Macquarie, the fifth governor of New South Wales, at McQuade Park in Windsor. Macquarie’s statue was doused in red…


Judge Mulls Evidence for 3 of 6 in Alabama Birthday Shooting

DADEVILLE, Ala.—An Alabama investigator on Tuesday described a bloody, chaotic crime scene littered with 89 bullet casings and other evidence after a shooting killed four young people and wounded dozens at a Sweet Sixteen birthday party. Authorities have charged six people with reckless murder. The lead investigator in the case testified at a court hearing…


Scandals Overshadow China’s Global Domination of Table Tennis

Table tennis, known as the “national sport” in China, has been dominated globally by Chinese athletes for over two decades, but various scandals have overshadowed the honor. One example was how retired table tennis prodigy Zhang Jike used his girlfriend’s intimate videos to pay gambling debts. On March 31, Li Wei’ao, a reporter for The…


Ed Sheeran Testifies in Music Copyright Lawsuit

NEW YORK—Ed Sheeran took the witness stand in a New York courtroom Tuesday to deny allegations that his hit song “Thinking Out Loud” ripped off Marvin Gaye’s soul classic “Let’s Get It On.” Sheeran, 32, was called to testify in the civil trial by the heirs of Ed Townsend, Gaye’s co-writer on the 1973 soul…


Inflation Falls From to 7 Percent Ahead of Cash Rate Call

Australia’s inflation has most likely topped out and starting to moderate, but it’s unclear if the fall will be enough to convince the Reserve Bank to keep rates on hold next week. Inflation lifted seven percent annually in the March quarter, but consumer prices as measured by the Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) are growing…


Missouri AG, Whistleblower’s Lawyers Dispute Transgender Youth Clinic’s ‘Internal Review’

A Missouri transgender clinic says an internal review found that staff treated gender-confused youths ethically and didn’t cause harm, calling a whistleblower’s allegations “unsubstantiated.” But the whistleblower’s lawyers and the Missouri attorney general dispute that conclusion, saying they remain concerned about practices at the Washington University Transgender Center at St. Louis Children’s Hospital. “The transgender…